Joan F. Flinch is currently an Independent Consultant and Senior Geoscience Consultant for Elsevier based in Madrid, Spain. Joan received his B. S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Barcelona, Spain in 1988 and 1990 respectively. His M.S. thesis focused on the structural mapping of the southern Pyrenees. He enrolled in the Geology and Geophysics Department at Rice University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1994, directed by Professor A. W. Bally. Before becoming an Independent Consultant, he spent 17 years at Repsol where he held the positions of West Africa New Ventures and Asset Manager, Latin America New Ventures Manager, Geology Manager, Geoscience Discipline Manager and Exploration Quality Advisor. He worked from 1997 to 2004 for Total, in Paris and Pau, France. From 1994 to 1997 he was a consultant geologist for Lagoven (PDVSA Affiliate) in Caracas. Joan has given numerous talks and published papers on the Pyrenees and the Betic Cordillera in Spain, the Moroccan Rif, the Northern Colombia Accretionary Prism, the Eastern Venezuelan fold-and-thrust belt, the Gulf of Paria, the Bolivia Sub-Andean region and the Sierra Leone-Liberia continental margin. He has been teaching several courses on Seismic interpretation and deep-water plays and leading geological field trips.